The Schoolmaster and other stories - Penn State University

Anton TchekhovThe lunch is certainly exceptional. Everything thatthe flora and fauna of the country can furnish is on thetable, but the only thing supernatural about it, perhaps,is that on the table there is everything except … alcoholicbeverages. Lyubov Petrovna has taken a vow neverto have in her house cards or spirituous liquors —thetwo sources of her husband’s ruin. And the only bottlescontain oil and vinegar, as though in mockery and chastisementof the guests who are to a man desperatelyfond of the bottle, and given to tippling.“Please help yourselves, gentlemen!” the marshal’swidow presses them. “Only you must excuse me, I haveno vodka…. I have none in the house.”The guests approach the table and hesitatingly attackthe pie. But the progress with eating is slow. In the plyingof forks, in the cutting up and munching, there is acertain sloth and apathy…. Evidently something iswanting.“I feel as though I had lost something,” one of the justicesof the peace whispers to the other. “I feel as I didwhen my wife ran away with the engineer…. I can’t eat.”Marfutkin, before beginning to eat, fumbles for a longtime in his pocket and looks for his handkerchief.“Oh, my handkerchief must be in my greatcoat,” herecalls in a loud voice, “and here I am looking for it,”and he goes into the vestibule where the fur coats arehanging up.He returns from the vestibule with glistening eyes, andat once attacks the pie with relish.“I say, it’s horrid munching away with a dry mouth,isn’t it?” he whispers to Father Yevmeny. “Go into thevestibule, Father. There’s a bottle there in my fur coat….Only mind you are careful; don’t make a clatter withthe bottle.”Father Yevmeny recollects that he has some directionto give to Luka, and trips off to the vestibule.“Father, a couple of words in confidence,” saysDvornyagin, overtaking him.“You should see the fur coat I’ve bought myself, gentlemen,”Hrumov boasts. “It’s worth a thousand, and Igave … you won’t believe it … two hundred and fifty!Not a farthing more.”93